We turn our attention from the new questions about Venus back to figuring out if we can find life on Mars. Researchers at Harvard and the Florida Institute of Technology analyzed the possibility of being able to find life, or evidence of past life, deep underground the surfaces of rocky worlds like Mars and the Moon. 

At the surface of those worlds, there is little to no atmosphere, and without that atmospheric pressure, liquid water cannot exist at the surface. However, it has been established that there are subsurface lakes on Mars. Might these be able to sustain life? The answer is a resounding… possibly.

Underground, the rock and soil above can create the pressure necessary to keep H2O in its liquid form. Since we know life on Earth generally needs water and we know there are extremophiles that thrive in very cold environments, the conditions underground could be just right for hosting life. In fact, according to noted Harvard scientist Avi Leob: We found that the biological material limit might be a few percent that of Earth’s subsurface biosphere, and a thousand times smaller than Earth’s global biomass.

While that doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s still detectable. Although, as Florida Tech professor Dr. Manasvi Lingam noted: We know that these searches will be technically challenging, but not impossible.

More Information

Center for Astrophysics press release 

“Potential for Liquid Water Biochemistry Deep Under the Surfaces of the Moon, Mars, and Beyond,” M. Lingam & A. Loeb, 2020 Sept 21, The Astrophysical Journal Letters